Frank Calvert
He began exploratory excavations on the mound at Hisarlık (the site of the ancient city of Troy), seven years before the arrival of Heinrich Schliemann.
His father was a distant relative of the Calverts, who had founded Baltimore, Maryland,[1] and Louisa was a direct descendant of the Campbells of Argyll (Scottish clansmen).
He remained unmarried, and had an enduring passion for the Homeric epics and a firm belief that the myths were history, not fiction.
In 1847, his brother Frederick had bought a farm of over 2,000 acres (8 km2) at Akca Koy which included part of mound of Hisarlik in a momentous acquisition.
In 1855, while Frederick was completely engrossed in affairs related to the Crimean War, Frank continued to produce the bulk of official consular correspondence in French and English.
After standing in for his brother James, Frank in 1874 eventually succeeded him as United States Consular agent, an unpaid position that he held for the rest of his life.
Apart from performing his consular duties, Calvert carried on careful, exploratory excavations on the family-owned land which incorporated the mound of Hisarlik.
In his teens he visited sites such as Corfu, Athens, Egypt, Brindisi and others, but he mostly stayed in the Troad, the region of Asia Minor believed to have been under Trojan rule.
At the time Schliemann began excavating in Turkey, the site commonly believed to be Troy was at Pınarbaşı, a hilltop at the south end of the Trojan Plain.
[6] Schliemann and Calvert found not only the possible site of Troy but thousands of artefacts such as diadems of woven gold, rings, bracelets, intricate earrings and necklaces, buttons, belts and brooches as well as anthropomorphic figures, bowls and vessels for perfumed oils.
[7][8] Calvert's work on Troy is mentioned in the 1985 BBC TV series In Search of the Trojan War, written and presented by Michael Wood.
They had other ambitions: James William Whittall, British consul in Smyrna, was spreading his doctrine of the "Trojan Colonization Society," (never more than an idea) which was influential on the Calverts, whom he visited.
The farm eventually became famous as a way station for archaeologists and the home of the Calvert collection of antiquities, which Frank kept locked in a hidden room.
The main house, featuring multiple guest bedrooms, was situated on a low ridge in a compound with several outbuildings.
Not long after his return the initial British expeditionary force of 10,000 men was held up in ships in the straits, with no place to bivouac, no supplies, and a commissariat of four non-Turkish speakers.
Within several days he had all the men billeted ashore and had developed an organization of local suppliers on short notice.
Needed supplies were not getting to their destinations for a number of reasons: perishables were spoiled through delay, cargos were lost or abandoned because there was no tracking system, or cut because a commissary speculated that they should be, etc.
[31] By June it was obvious to Parliament that the cabinet position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies was beyond the ability of only one minister.
The folly of an army dying because not allowed to help itself while its Commissariat was not efficient enough to move even the minimum of supplies became manifest to the whole nation.
Filder's defense was that he had conformed strictly to regulations,[note 5] and that he was not responsible for accidental events, which were "the visitations of God.
"[40] Anticipating this result, the new government started a secret investigation of its own under J. McNeill, a civilian physician, and a military officer, Colonel A.M. Tulloch, which it outed in April after the acquittal.
The decisions had been made by greedy contractors charging high interest rates, who had introduced delays to push the price up.
British troops went home at the end of the war in February, relationships with the Turkish merchants deteriorating to the point where conducting business with them was no longer viable.
His friend, John Brunton, head of the military hospital near Erenköy, was ordered to dismantle and sell the facility.
Criminal charges were brought against Frederick for non-payment of debt to the War Office by the Supreme Consular Court of Istanbul in March, 1857.
He won his case before Parliament, with commendation and thanks, and payment of the several thousand plus backpay and interest, arriving home 2.5 years after he had left it, to rescue the estate.
[note 6] During the 1860s Frederick Calvert's life and career were mainly consumed by a case of insurance fraud termed by the press the "Possidhon affair."
Modern historians who think he was guilty characterize him as a charismatic profiteer of shady ethics, while those who think he was innocent point to his patriotic motives in helping the British Army to the detriment of his own estate and his acquittal by Parliament.
[citation needed] Frederick requested William in London to borrow money as Abbot Brothers to finance the premiums.
Frederick forwarded to Abbott in London four affidavits from British consular agents on Tenedos and Samos of visual sightings of the ship.
